The Georgia State Memorial at the Vicksburg National Military Park is visible to passers-by on the park’s South Loop, but only if they happen to notice it, across Confederate Avenue and a stretch of grass 100 yards south of the more dominant Fort Garrott at Tour Stop 14.

Park officials hope to change that status.

“It’s the only state monument in the park that isn’t readily accessible,” said park Superintendent Michael Madell. “I think we owe it to the young men of Georgia, who came here and fought in 1863, to make it easier for people to visit the monument.”

Park officials have filed an Environmental Assessment report detailing two options for improving public access to the monument along with a third option — to do nothing. They are asking for public comment on the proposals.

Madell said one option is to build a trail like the one off the South Loop that leads to the Kentucky Monument. The trail is constructed of “rainbow turf,” he said, and has worked out well, especially in leading visitors off the main road and into some of the interior landscapes.

The other option, which Madell said park officials prefer, is to move the monument closer to the road.

“It’s been done before,” he said. “We don’t necessarily like to have to move a monument, but sometimes it’s the best option.”

He was not sure if a state memorial has ever been moved, but smaller monuments had been, he said.

The Georgia Memorial cost $7,500 and is identical to Georgia memorials at Gettysburg, Antietam and Kennesaw Mountain, according to the VNMP website. It consists of gray granite and stands approximately 18 feet high, exhibits the state seal and bears the inscription, “We sleep here in obedience to law; When duty called, we came, When country called, we died.”

The memorial was dedicated in October 1962, when the park road was not closed to public traffic and led past the monument before exiting the park and connecting with Confederate Avenue, which now becomes Mission 66 on the southwest side of the park’s boundary.

In the mid-1960s, access to the park from a number of city streets was closed off and the pavement leading past the Georgia Monument was removed.

Currently, the monument can be seen from the South Loop, Madell said, since the area between it and the park road is kept mowed, but it’s often overlooked because of nearby Fort Garrott at Tour Stop 14.

Visitors can walk to the memorial, but safety along the grassy former roadbed is also a concern of park officials.

Information on the proposals to improve access as well as links to the full 60-page Environmental Assessment and a page for public comment can be found at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/vick.

The public is invited to meet with park staff at Tour Stop 14 on July 13, at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to discuss the proposals.

Comments can also be mailed or hand delivered to the Vicksburg National Military Park, Madell said. The public comment period ends July 20.